Tag: substitutions

Welcome It is nice to be back on the blog today. I was fortunate to take a four-day weekend with my husband and daughter to travel and visit my parents. I had not seen them in six months, so this was a much needed trip! We are thankful for safe travels and a wonderful, relaxing visit.

Today, I’m excited to share a new dessert with you. I happen to think this is super yummy and it came to be just by me wanting to take a favorite snack up a notch. I hope you like it too!

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Food For Thought One of my very earliest blog posts recapped my running days spanning about five years. You can read the entire post here. In that post, I shared some of my favorite running snacks, with the best being my “cookie dough yogurt.” I don’t run anymore but I still eat this because it’s JUST SO GOOD!

In the snack, I stir a tablespoon of peanut butter and a tablespoon of mini-chocolate chips into a carton of vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt. this “snack” also makes a great dessert because it’s just the right amount of sweet treat. Recently, I was thinking about how I could possibly turn this into a good no-bake cheesecake filling by adding a little cream cheese. Then, I was thinking about the low-carb and high-protein factors in this yummy snack, so I started looking into low-carb pie crusts. I found several options using coconut or almond flours. I came up with my crust by using coconut flour and blanched almonds.

Like any dessert, it is a treat and it’s not low-calorie. It’s definitely not low-fat, either (hello, KETO fans!) But with this dessert, it may just work for special low-carb diets, like my husband’s diabetic diet. Each slice (1/8 of the pie) has only 25 grams of carbohydrates, but 6 grams of fiber and 15 grams of protein (nutrition information calculated on RecipeNutrition.com). This is roughly the same amount of carbohydrates and fiber found in a large apple. Now, I’m not telling you to swap out fruit for desserts, but still, you could definitely do worse than this easy no-bake cheesecake. You can reduce the carbohydrates and sugar even further by cutting back on the mini-chocolate chips or substituting a sugar-free chocolate chip alternative.

The trick for lowering carbohydrate counts in recipes like this one is a gluten-free flour substitute. I used organic gluten-free coconut flour and ground almonds to form the base of the crust. The coconut flour I used is from Bob’s Red Mill. It has 9 grams of carbohydrates and 5 grams of dietary fiber per 2-tablespoon serving. Two tablespoons of all-purpose flour has 12 grams of carbohydrates and no dietary fiber. The coconut flour has 3 grams of protein while the equivalent amount of A.P. flour has only 1.5 grams of protein. (Note-I am not affiliated or compensated by the Bob’s Red Mill brand.)

I used Splenda no-calorie sweetener for this recipe. You can use sugar, honey, or maple syrup, but the calorie and carbohydrate count will increase with those substitutions. It will also be necessary to reduce the amount of honey or syrup is you choose those options. I did not use these ingredients, so I cannot give precise measurements. Using all-natural peanut butter also helps lower the sugar content of the recipe.